About Marxism In Culture

The ‘Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture’ Seminar was set up in 2002 in the aftermath of the large international conference on ‘Marxism and the Visual Arts Now’ held at UCL in April of that year.  Speakers have included:  Caroline Arscott, David Cunningham, Angela Dimitrakaki, Carol Duncan, Richard Godden, Tom Gretton, Suman Gupta, Simon Jarvis, Stathis Kouvelakis, David Mabb, David Margolies, Stewart Martin, Fred Orton, Alex Potts, Adrian Rifkin, Mark Sanders, Fred Schwartz, Greg Sholette, Julian Stallabrass, Blake Stimson, James Van Dyke, Ben Watson, O.K. Werckmeister, and many more.  This seminar series was conceived to provide a forum for those committed to the continuing relevance of Marxism for cultural analysis.  Both “Marxism” and “culture” are conceived here in a broad sense.  We understand Marxism as an ongoing self-critical tradition, and correspondingly the critique of Marxism’s own history and premises is part of the agenda.  “Culture” is intended to comprehend not only the traditional fine arts, but also aspects of popular culture such as film, popular musics, and fashion.  From this perspective, conventional distinctions between the avant-garde and the popular, the elite and the mass, the critical and the commercial are very much open for scrutiny.  All historical inquiry is theoretically grounded, self-consciously or not, and theoretical work in the Marxist tradition demands empirical verification.